a y al

Hola. I get confused on when to use a and al. For example: Voy a la tienda. Voy al supermercado. Is it generally gender specific? If the noun is feminine you use a la and if it is masculine you use al and drop the el. Am I thinking correctly? How about words that aren't so obvious, words that can be a noun or a verb, like trabajar. Voy a trabajar. Is this correct or should it be: Voy al trabajar. Does one mean I am going to the place where I work and the other mean I am going to actually work (get something done)? Necesito ayudar, por favor!

[quo]*Quote from * TPMaple Is it generally gender specific? If the noun is feminine you use a la and if it is masculine you use al and drop the el. Am I thinking correctly?[/quo] Yes, it has to do with gender. "Al" is a contraction of "a el" and is thus used only with masculine nouns. If the word is feminine, and thus takes "la" rather than "el", you just say "a la". The examples you gave are good ones: *a la* tienda but *al* supermercado. [quo]*Quote:* How about words that aren't so obvious, words that can be a noun or a verb, like trabajar. Voy a trabajar. Is this correct or should it be: Voy al trabajar. Does one mean I am going to the place where I work and the other mean I am going to actually work (get something done)?[/quo] I could be wrong, but as far as I know, trabajar can only be a verb, not a noun. The noun is el trabajo. Thus, I think you can say Voy al trabajo (I am going to the place where I work, or I am going to my job), but not Voy al trabajar. You can, however, say Voy a trabajar (I am going to work--i.e., I'm going to do work).

Necesito ayudar, por favor!......in signing off I believe you should have said necesito ayuda, por favor! because you're asking for help, not asking to help.Ayuda is a noun and as such it can follow a conjugated verb. Correct me if I'm wrong and am just trying to help. B

[quo]*Quote from * BZ Necesito ayudar, por favor!......in signing off I believe you should have said necesito ayuda, por favor! because you're asking for help, not asking to help.Ayuda is a noun and as such it can follow a conjugated verb. Correct me if I'm wrong and am just trying to help.[/quo] I think what you say is correct.

Thanks for the input. I work with a lot of native Spanish speakers so I have a lot of resources when trying to learn how to say something. Unfortunately none of them are teachers. They struggle with explaining Spanish grammar the same way I struggle explaining English grammar. It is fun trying to learn, though. Gracias.